Why M3AAWG?

Who we are:

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against botnets, malware, spam, viruses, DoS attacks and other online exploitation. We are the largest global industry association, with more than 200 members worldwide, bringing together all the stakeholders in the online community in a confidential, open forum. We develop cooperative approaches for fighting online abuse.

Founded in 2004, M3AAWG is a technology-neutral, non-political working body. We systematically focus on operational issues of Internet abuse including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. Our membership Includes Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecomm companies, Email Service Providers (ESP), social networking companies, leading hardware and software vendors, major brands, major antivirus vendors and numerous security vendors.

What we do:

We develop and publish best practices papers, position statements, training and educational videos, and other materials to help the online community fight abuse with a focus on operational practices. Our public policy advocacy (which is not lobbying) provides technical and operational guidance to governments, Internet and public policy agencies developing new Internet policies and legislation.

As an organization, we target abusive messaging, malware and other new forms of abuse that threaten end-users:

Messaging - Addressing abuse on any messaging platform, from email to texting

Malware – Spam and many other forms of abuse are only the symptoms of the real pathology, which are the bots, viruses and malicious code that surreptitiously infect users’ systems. If we block the pathology – the malware – from accessing the system, fraud and user vulnerabilities will dissipate

Mobile – Protecting this ubiquitous platform as it comes under attack from malware and messaging abuse, including both text and voice services

How we work:

M3AAWG provides a trusted forum and a framework for open discussion among the professional online community about abuse issues in an atmosphere of confidentiality and cooperation. Rules of confidentiality are followed: “What happens in M3AAWG stays in M3AAWG,” following the Chatham House Rules.

Our work is driven by members who contribute ideas and content for best practice documents with input from a diverse community across industries, government, academia and civil society groups. We also seek feedback from relevant associations and experts within the online ecosystem.

Value for our members:

The sharing of best approaches to fight abuse that takes place in M3AAWG has proven to be very valuable to our members and is not available in any other forum. M3AAWG members share information regarding deployments of new technologies and operational-level evaluations of technical initiatives for stopping abuse and other online threats. This often equates to free technical and operational consulting from peers, leading technical experts and our Senior Technical Advisors, and is a unique membership benefit.

We welcome the participation of companies and organizations that are interested in fighting messaging abuse and malware, on any platform. We also partner with leading industry associations to extend the work of our mutual organizations. We have tiered membership levels and you can apply through our online membership application. We welcome interested organizations to join their peers in helping to protect the Internet and end-users.

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Why Get Involved in M3AAWG?

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